Neko cafe

Last week a student was telling me about a new cat cafe in Kawasaki. If you haven't heard of them, they are one of those uniquely Japanese innovations, I think. Basically, it's a cafe full of cats that the patrons can play with/pat/look at. ^_^ I wanted to go there, because I miss cats...

Tonight Pete and I were looking for somewhere to have dinner when we came across a dude in a cat costume, advertising that very cafe. The friendly cat showed us where to go. I'm happy! ^_^

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a big room with small tables on the sides, but the kind of atmosphere where you can wander freely around; you're not restricted to your table. It was late so there were only a few other people there. There were big, elaborate scratching posts and bowls and boxes and ramps for the cats to climb around on or sleep in, as well as lots of toys on strings for pouncing.

You leave your shoes outside and wash your hands before you go in. The cafe is mostly full of overgrown kittens, around 4 months old, I think. They mostly had very, very soft fur. There were a few Birmans, too; my favourite cat; but also Norwegian forest cats, tabbies, Burmese and Persians.

They're obviously used to each other and having a lot of people around, because they didn't seem too stressed like you might expect from such an unnatural environment. I'd been slightly worried that I would go in feeling really sorry for the cats, but they seemed like they had a pretty good life. The cafe was playing classical music, which set an atmosphere of calmness; nobody was harassing the cats, but playing with them gently or just watching them.

So it was nice to get a cat fix; there were at least thirty in all (but cats could wander off into a back room if they wanted to be alone). ^_^ Pete had his camera but he doesn't have Internet now; some day I might get them and post some here.

=^. . ^=